


All The Things (That Might've Been)

by imaginarypasta



Series: Bitter Pills [3]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Possession, idrk how to tag this tbh, kinda angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:07:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23276818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginarypasta/pseuds/imaginarypasta
Summary: Some perspectives on Valerie's possession, specifically those of Danny and his parents.Companion to "Bitter Pill to Swallow." Check series description if you want more expansive timeline info.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Valerie Gray
Series: Bitter Pills [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1673851
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> the desperate need to cut out excess exposition vs. the overwhelming desire to write this bc i thought it seemed really cool

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter takes place in the fight before BPtS.

Valerie did not generally fight ghosts at night, unless they came close enough to her apartment in Elmerton to be picked up on her radar, which was rare. Danny could count maybe two or three times total it had happened in the last few years. This fact made it incredibly strange when she was already sending smooth purple blasts from her gun into the belly of a large leviathan just after two in the morning.

He didn’t get a long time to think about it, though, since the leviathans had been plentiful today. They were always the strangest ghosts to fight, their skill in battle seeming to come from natural instincts after years of self-defense rather than any particular thoughts. Sometimes, he was surprised they were even sentient, and others, he was grateful they came out of the portal as infrequently as they did.

Danny jumped into the fight quickly, the existence of a much bigger danger forcing him into a truce with Valerie. He much preferred working together, even if she was more than hostile in their few moments beside each other. Although he saw her pretty much every day, he really missed her when she donned her suit. She only saw him as an enemy like this. But that was his fault, of course.

He’d figured out the best way to destroy a leviathan years ago — go straight for the core. They were so ancient and impossible, they couldn’t really be contained in something like the Fenton Thermos. So while he hated what it felt like, he always had to destabilize them until they couldn’t go on any longer.

The first time he’d figured this out, Valerie had been there. She’d shown up right at the very end, and he was crouched down on some roof, trying his best to keep from throwing up. It was a combination of the sensation that rocked his body when he did it and the feeling that this could very well happen to him. And there was the guilt of killing.

 _Disgusting_ , she had said. _You claim to be so heroic, and yet you kill one of your own._

He was pretty sure Valerie would have easily killed a ghost if given the chance, especially if that ghost was him. He didn’t know why she had said it, and he played the conversation in his mind over and over again.

 _I’m not one of them_.

 _I promise I won’t do it again_.

 _I never said I was a hero_.

But he had said nothing, just keeled over when a wave of nausea came over him. Valerie hadn’t even done anything more, just said that and looked at him with hatred in her eyes and left.

Their relationship had changed since then. Sometime between then and now, she’d accepted that they might have to work together sometimes. Her words seemed more cutting since she’d decided that, though. It had hurt their friendship, although of course she didn’t know that. She attributed it to Danny’s increasing dive into the realm of the antisocial. No time to hang out, skipping full days of school, not returning her calls. He couldn’t put that on her; he was the one who had refused to tell her.

As they fought the leviathan, they didn’t so much work in tandem as nearby each other, careful not to disturb the other’s work. Still, that didn’t mean that Danny wasn’t watching her with a careful eye. She was also watching him.

Exhaustion pulled down his body, weighing down what should be a feather-light form. He was slow, sloppy, dangerous. This was the fifth big attack of the day, and he was impossibly groggy. He was fighting himself just to stay awake. Valerie noticed, of course, in more ways than one.

She’d left a message on the home phone after he’d missed most of the school day.

_Hey, Danny, missed you at school today. I grabbed your homework in our classes together Also, Lancer said he’s going to give you Saturday school next week because of all the absences. Sorry. Also, you failed the test in history. She said no makeups for absences. Hope you’re feeling okay. You better not get me sick. Call me, bye._

He deleted it as soon as he heard it, of course, so his parents didn’t hear. But it was infuriating how mundane it was, when he’d been out risking his life all day. He silently thanked the universe she didn’t know about him yet, though, because at least he had their friendship.

There was also the snide remark when she’d first seen Phantom that afternoon. “You just can’t keep them from coming back, huh?”

And another one, just a few moments ago, when he’d been hit by a huge tentacle that smacked him to the floor, a contact that would leave huge, red marks along his back where he skidded along cement. “Get it together, Phantom.”

He thought he might lose his transformation any minute. At least she might finally recognize his humanity. He felt guilty that he still felt so angry at her. Months ago, he’d given himself an ultimatum. _Tell her_ or _suck it up_. He had yet to make the decision.

If this is how he felt, unfocused and weak, Valerie must’ve been worse. She showed it, too. She dodged hits, but they were too close. Almost uncalculated. For as many times as she’d chastised him on his tiredness tonight, she missed a shot at the thing. With its size, that should’ve been impossible. And something must’ve been bothering her, because her gear was acting up.

It started with a few sputters on her hoverboard’s path. They were small, barely noticeable. But they quickly turned into her losing her balance on the thing, only able to get it back when she stopped in mid-air. Another blast from her gun sent it wobbling through the air again, and there it stayed, until finally, as she soared over the head of the beast, it just detached from her boots.

She was falling, screaming as she went down for her board to come back to no avail. The landing would kill her on impact. Danny rushed toward her without thinking, going intangible through the barrier of the leviathan, pressing forward with everything he had left.

He was going too fast to realize what was happening, so when he collided with her, his ghost instincts just took over. He could feel the terribly familiar feeling of overshadowing cloud his mind.

Danny had never liked possession, from either side of it. Being overshadowed left his mind scattered and his body stressed. More often than not, he ended up sick. His parents said an immune response was natural in this case. He could feel his mind mixing with the very simple thoughts of ghosts. Their emotions would always remain under his skin for days to come.

Overshadowing someone else was worse, though. Two complex minds were suddenly forced into a single mind’s space. Their thoughts mixed together and no matter what they were, they always left him with a panic response afterward. With so many tangents spinning around the same headspace, only the really powerful thoughts could get by.

For Valerie, that was _Help me_ , and at the moment they collided, _Get out_. She yelled it over and over, so loudly and forcefully he could barely focus on slowing her down in her descent to the ground. Before he could set her down gently, still about thirty feet in the air, he felt himself ejected out, going straight for the leviathan.

He shot straight through the stomach, not even having the mind to go intangible, just ripping through the false skin made of ectoplasm and crashing into its core.

The feeling was the same one as when he died, thousands of little bugs crawling through his veins. Hot and cold, painful and numb. He was dying all over again. He clutched his head in pain and, as loud as he could, just _screamed_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> takes place during BPtS/after chapter 1. after the fights but before the fentons arrive at the hospital

His brain felt like it was on fire, which, for someone who ran below what most people would consider cold, was not especially good. Energy raced around in his mind, buzzing inside him, wanting to be released; it was there even as he sat on his bed with human skin and bones. This was how overshadowing always went. After the initial headache from colliding minds dissipated, he was met with this terrible longing energy. His ghost half just _wanted_. It wanted to feel like humans feel, move like humans move, _live_ like humans live. It wanted nothing more than life. This all seemed pretty useless to Danny, considering he already had a human body.

He’d tried to avoid it as much as he could after he realized how it made him feel, and he’d done a pretty good job over the years. But tonight was different, and it had been so long since he’d had this feeling that it felt so much worse.

It had all happened so fast, all on instinct. He was moving too quickly to really register what was happening. He didn’t have time to stop it from happening. Whether it was an instinct was to _protect_ or _steal_ he still didn’t know, even almost two hours later; that is what really unnerved him.

The energy that still ran in his veins, lighting the blood in his skin and irises with a faint glowing green, was an energy that wanted so badly to be _used_. It was very different than the anxious, avoidant energy that came after being possessed himself. That feeling was something crawling on his back, something he couldn’t quite reach to brush off but that weighed heavily on his mind. That made his body rush with a primal fear where the only thing one could know was themselves. _This_ begged him to take somebody for his own, their life for him to use. He hated it. He was repulsed by it.

It wasn’t him, he reminded himself. It just wanted to be used by him. Still, the wanting was so powerful.

When his mother came into his room, he had to pull the blankets over his head so she couldn’t see the green glow coating his body, pushing up through his veins. He’d seen her for a split second, surrounded by the orange hallway light, her hazmat suit donned but hair messy from sleep.

“Oh, sorry, Danny. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

He could see through the blankets that she’d flicked on his bedroom light.

“It’s fine,” he said. His mind was racing now. He hadn’t heard her creeping up, too lost in thought for that, but the shock had pulled him from the haze he was in a moment earlier. It was a terrible shock to go from trying to repress that ghostly energy to a sudden spurt of very human shock.

“Your father and I just got a call from the hospital,” she said. “We’re headed there now and just wanted to let you know.”

He pulled the blanket from over his head now, knowing all signs of inhuman green would be gone by this point. Thank God. “Why?”

She sat beside him on the bed. “There was a ghost attack, and someone got hurt. Apparently, it seems like they’ve had some ecto-contamination, so we’re going to go check it out.”

Danny didn’t need to ask since he already knew, but he did anyway. “Who was it?”

It was an unusual question for him to ask, and Maddie knew it. He knew she knew it. He could hear the hesitance in her voice when she answered, “Valerie Gray.”

“I’m coming with you,” he said. He’d known this was a possibility, but if they were calling his parents in, it must be pretty potent.

“Honey, I know she’s your friend, but you can’t.”

“Please, I have to see her.” He couldn’t stop his voice from shaking.

“We can’t bring you in with us.”

“Then I’ll stay in the waiting room. I’m visiting as a friend, not as your son.”

Maddie looked at him for a long time, then sighed. “Fine.”

…

In the car, his parents were silent. The radio showed a single volume bar, meaning they couldn’t really hear its sound. He wished they would just turn it off instead of leaving it like that. It only served to heighten his nerves.

“What do you think happened?” Danny asked. His parents didn’t answer for the better part of a minute.

“We don’t know, Danny,” Maddie answered. “The doctor mentioned color around the eyes and heightened fear.”

“Which means…?” he prompted.

“From what we know about it, it sounds like it was a possession.”

Danny exhaled silently. “What does that mean for her?”

“Well, any number of things,” Maddie explained from the passenger seat. “She’ll probably be a bit forgetful or scared for a little while. Anywhere from a few hours to a few days. But it could be worse. If there’s any residual ectoplasm…” Her voice trailed off.

“As long as the ghost is gone, she’ll be fine” Jack reassured him. “It’s pretty likely the only issue will be her body’s response to the overshadowing. Usually it’s just paranoia for a little while, but that depends on how much ectoplasm is left. If there’s a lot, the body can’t naturally expel it, so we’ll probably have to take some initiative. It really depends on how long the ghost had control over her for. Worst care scenario is the ghost is still using her body as a vessel.”

Maddie added, “Which is unlikely. Most ghosts don’t go dormant in possession.”

“And if they do, we have equipment that will separate them.”

“Right,” Danny said. _Shit_ , what had he done?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> takes place during BPtS, while the kids are in the waiting room.

Jack knelt down besides Maddie, looking carefully at the girl’s face.

“Valerie,” he said softly. “Could you open your eyes for us?”

“Sleepy,” she mumbled.

“I know you are, dear,” Maddie said. “But we need to make sure you’re healthy.”

“You’re doctors?” she asked.

“Scientists,” Maddie corrected gently. “But we’re here to help you.”

Valerie pressed her lids open, revealing the faintest green circle around brown irises. If it weren’t for careful eyes, they wouldn’t have seen it. The Fentons exchanged a glance. She had definitely been possessed.

“Wait, I know you.” She closed her eyes again. They could see the gentle folds of skin over her eyes turn rough with thought. “You’re Danny’s parents.”

“We are,” Jack said.

“Why was he so worried about me?”

“What are you talking about, sweetie?” Maddie asked. Valerie didn’t respond, already snoring lightly. She drummed her fingers on the bedside, quiet enough not to disturb the sleeping girl. After a moment, she snapped up from her seat beside the bed. “Let’s get back to work.” They continued their tests in silence.

Finally, Jack said, “It looks like her body is naturally removing the ectoplasm. Quickly, too. Could be the arm injury.”

“Why do you say that?”

“It’s the only thing I can think of that’s different from the other victims. Open wound, blood…” He sighed. “We should at least keep an eye on it.”

“You’re right,” Maddie said. “We can ask her father if we can do more tests on her throughout the healing process. It’ll be good for our research and their peace of mind.”

“We should let the kids in here, they’ll want to see her.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> during BPtS, when they're going into Valerie's room

_ I didn’t mean to do it, _ he wanted to tell her. Why couldn’t he just _tell_ them? If this is what it did to people? Why was he so _selfish_?

“She’ll be okay, Danny,” Maddie said and rubbed his back.

_ Does she know it was me, _ he wanted to ask. _Does she hate me even more now?_ But Maddie couldn’t answer those questions, and if she could, he didn’t want her to.

He pulled his arms around his mother’s shoulders to wipe budding tears from his eyes. She released him, and Danny felt like the world would fall out from below him. His father clapped a hand onto his shoulder and gave him a reassuring look. _Go_ , he mouthed.


End file.
